Chapter 115: Matza Ball
*The best way to find out what we really need is to get rid of what we don’t. – Marie Kondo*
The intoxicating smell of chicken and matza ball filled the station house. By the time Douggie walked into Gina’s office, her mouth was watering. She hated that bastard. He knew her weaknesses and how to get her to agree to just about anything.
“Good morning.” Douggie boomed.
“Fuck off.” She growled but her eyes never left the plastic bowl in his hands.
“And here I came bearing a peace offering.” He smiled broadly.
“I don’t trust your peace offerings.” She admitted as he placed the bowl on the desk and produced a plastic spoon from his jacket pocket.
“With good reason.” He agreed, sitting down and pulling out a packet of papers.
Seeing the pack of papers, she replaced the lid on the soup that she had just removed and groaned as she held her hand out for them. “What kind of hell have you brought me today?”
“I bring you Matza ball soup and good tidings of cheer.” He smiled as he handed over the papers.
Snorting, she accepted them and opened the packet.
“You don’t believe me?”
“Not when you come to my office with a bribe of Matza ball soup.”
“It’s not a bribe. That’s illegal. It’s a meal to celebrate.” He grinned. “Mazel Tov, you get your department back.”
“March first.” Gina smirked and pulled the lid back off the bowl as she continued to read. “I could marry your wife.”
“Good thing you’re straight and I already married her.”
“She cooks like this all the time?” Gina asked and Douggie smiled as he nodded. “For this, I could munch a little muff.”
Douggie roared with laughter. “I’ll let her know that she has options if it doesn’t work out with us.”
“I appreciate that.” Gina grinned and blew on the spoonful of broth before sipping into her mouth. “Screw this,” she tossed the papers aside and pulled the soup closer, “tell me what all that says.”
“March first the remaining of the nineteen officers return to duty. Including Devonshire, they are down twelve officers. Out of sixteen civilian employees, five are still employed.”
“Holy shit.”
“Dispatch is remaining with the county.”
Gina was cutting off a piece of the Matza ball with her spoon. “Makes sense. Outlying areas, the other towns and all fire services go through us. It also makes it easier to coordinate events.”
Douggie nodded. “I didn’t think you’d have a problem with that.”
“Nope. Weird question for you.”
“Go for it.” He said running through the facts in his papers in his mind.
“Is it Matza or Matzo?”
Shaking his head, he grinned at her. “It can be either, with or without the H at the end. My understanding is that it depends on dialect and region.”
“Okay. I was just arguing with myself over it.” Gina shrugged. “Carry on.”
“My wayward, son.” Douggie half said, and half sung before giving an apologetic smile. Gina joined him with the rest of the chorus to the Kansas song.
“Never said that I could sing.” Gina admitted.
“I can sing. No one with ears wants to hear it.” He returned the grin.
She offered a fist bump before returning to her soup. “I know there’s a downside. Get to it.”
“The state and mayor are putting together a hiring board to fill the open positions.” He gave her a moment to process the statement. “They want you and at least one of your deputies to sit on it.”
“The fuck.” She grumbled chasing after a piece of chicken.
“I knew you’d be excited.” Douggie smirked.
“I’m going to need more soup.” Gina warned.
“I’ll let Peggy know.”
“Details are in the lovely papers?” She asked pushing the soup aside and throwing her spoon away.
“Yes. Schedule of meetings and blah, blah, blah is all listed in there.”
“I hate your packets of paper.”
“I know. Oh, hey, how’d that thing at your brothers go?”
“They’re having a little girl.” Gina smiled as she put the lid back on the bowl. “I’ll make sure you get the bowl back.”
“Thanks. I love my wife, but she does scare me a little bit.”
“How’d your weekend go?” she asked wiggling her eyebrows at him.
“We needed the weekend away with no kids.”
“Let me guess, first thing that you did was take a nap?”
“For three hours.” He admitted with a chuckle. “And then do you know what I woke up to?”
Gina placed her hand on the top of the bowl of soup. “Just remember that’s my girlfriend you’re talking about. Or at least possible future girlfriend.”
“Well, I guess you can have the honor of the diapers.”
“You know what causes that, right?” she teased him.
“Nope. After five kids, I still don’t know how I got them.” Douggie grinned. “Pretty sure that it’s not Amazon Prime. It’s not a two-day delivery.”
Gina eyed him as she groaned.
“Back order at the factory.” Douggie chuckled.
“Damn, your bad jokes make me think of AJ.”
“Once I became a dad, the jokes just became apparent.”
Gina picked up the patrol car stress ball and threw it at his chest. “Now, I really hate you.”
“No, you don’t.” He grinned at her as he tossed the stress ball back to her.
“Maybe not.” She grinned back as she put her patrol car back in its parking spot in front of a small toy sign declaring SHERIFF ONLY. “It’s the only assigned parking that I have.”
“You’re a good boss.”
“I learned from plenty of bad ones.” She admitted. “I was going to ask you about a visitor that the prison had.”
Douggie grinned and Gina knew that he knew about the visitor. And who they had gone to see.
“I received all the visitor logs, so I know who you’re talking about.”
“Did you send them?”
“I did not. I had nothing to do with it. She said that someone reached out to her and told her about her sister and nephew being arrested. The big question is, who reached out to Amber Fargo’s sister on the other side of the country? Paid for her travel, her hotel and her rental car?”
Gina closed her eyes and shook her head. Letting out a deep breath she opened her eyes and looked at him. “I honestly have not heard anything.”
“No offense, your brother is too damned smart to do it himself. He probably hired someone, who hired someone, who hired someone.”
“That would not surprise me.” Gina admitted.
“Well, if it comes up, tell him thanks. She’s been very talkative lately.”
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